This spice packs a punch!

Note on images: We were able to find images of the 44M, but without copyright information, so we can’t include them in this article. For photos and other images, see this page.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and this phrase is never truer than during wartime. As World War II progressed, armoured vehicles evolved to become more resilient to improving anti-tank weapons. Conversely, as tanks became better protected, newer ways had to be found to penetrate and destroy them. Anti-tank guns became larger in calibre and the shells heavier and more costly to produce. Many nations started to look at alternative ways to counter these more heavily armoured vehicles, whilst also controlling the cost of producing these counter measures. A range of hand-held or man portable weapons started to roll off the production lines of both the Allied and Axis nations. The Americans developed the Bazooka, the British the PIAT, (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) and the Germans came up with the Panzer Faust single use launcher. Whilst all these weapons could be effective against a large target vehicle in the right conditions, their short range would often be their downfall. One potential solution was the development of rocket propelled projectiles and one country which came up with an effective design was, perhaps surprisingly, Hungary.

Hungary
was, however, no stranger to designing and developing its own range
of military hardware. It produced reasonably effective Armoured
Fighting Vehicles, such as the Toldi and Turan, and its motor
industry also had a range of sturdy vehicles e.g. the Raba 38M
Botond. Unfortunately the Hungarians were seen by some officers in
the German High Command as being an unwilling and sometimes
unreliable ally. This meant that weapons development and technology
wasn’t always shared – including rocketry.

The
arrival of the T-34 and KV-I on the Eastern Front battlefields came
as a shock, not only to the Hungarians, but also to their German
allies. Being denied access to newer designs of anti-tank guns, the
Hungarian military had to look inward and turned to home grown
designs. With little or no help from their ally in counteracting the
threat of Soviet armour dominance, the Hungarian Institute of
Military Science (HTI) began its own anti-tank rocket development
program in 1942. After two years of designing and testing, it
produced the 44M Buzoganyveto
(literal translation ‘Mace Thrower’ – as the rocket head
resembled a mace seed pod).

The
rocket projectile was similar in appearance, although much smaller,
to the later Stuka zu Fuss rockets. Its total length was 1100mm with
a tube diameter of 100mm. Its warhead diameter was 250mm with a
length of 410mm. Two
types of rocket were designed for infantry use. One was for use
against armoured vehicles, the other, against troops. The anti-tank
version of the rocket was called ‘Buzogány’ (mace) and the
anti-personnel, high explosive type was called ‘Zápor’ (rainfall
or shower). The first prototype of the Buzogány was tested in the
spring of 1944. The rocket was 215mm in diameter (I assume this to be
the internal diameter of the explosive warhead) and contained a 4 kg
shaped charge. Designed to be able to penetrate more than 300mm of
armour or concrete, this rocket was able to destroy any kind of known
heavy tank of that time at a distance of between 500 and 1200 meters.
I assume here that the anti-tank version was a direct fire weapon but
it is unclear whether the anti-personnel rocket was capable of use as
an air burst weapon or whether it would just explode upon contact
with the ground.

A three man crew operated the rocket launcher with a gunner/aimer lying or sitting to the left of a protective shield with two loaders to his right hand side. The launcher designed initially for the 44M Buzogányvető was to be a conventional tripod arrangement, but this proved hard to move in a fluid battlefield situation. The solution to this issue presented itself when the upper part of the launcher (the two rockets and the protective shield) was mated to a Soviet wheeled Maxim machine gun mount, plenty of which had been captured earlier in the war. This arrangement made the Buzogányvető easier to manoeuvre.

Operational use of the 44M Buzogányvető rockets

Records vary as to how many launchers were actually produced but sources claim somewhere around 600 to 700. Due to the rapid advance of the Soviet armies during 1944, the Buzogányvető system was never used against its intended target i.e. Soviet heavy armour. The launchers were manufactured in the WM Factory and none seem to have been sent to frontline troops. The factory was over-run in December 1944, when Soviet troops captured it, and nearly all the rocket launchers were deployed and used in the siege of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Had this rocket system been designed earlier, it was envisaged as either simply a ground launcher or mounted in vehicles like the Krupp Protze, Opel Blitz or Rába Botond flatbed trucks. At least one was trial mounted on a Toldi II light tank.

Modelling the 44M Buzogányvető launcher and its use in wargaming.

When I first started to research this article, I never thought you would be able to buy a 44M Buzogányvető launcher or the rockets for it but a Google search shows that there are 3D printed versions of the wheeled launcher in various scales. A number of the commercial 3D printing companies make them in 1/100th, 1/72nd and 1/56th scales and no doubt you would be able to order them in any scale you prefer to game in.

As for their usage…well this would have opened up a whole new dimension to Eastern Front games if they had actually been deployed in time. The basic data for the rockets is included in this article so if you like adding a bit of ‘what if’ to your games, then this weapon system might be useful to you.

Further research.

I have used Google extensively for this article. I have no personal connection with Google at all, I just prefer it as my main search engine. If you would like to see more, type in something like;

44M BuzogányvetőHungarian 44M BuzogányvetőHungarian Mace Thrower etc.

and you’ll find some further reading.

I hope you like and enjoy this article and it’s something different to read.

Hello Brian..as I researched this article I couldn’t find any data about how accurate the system was. I would assume like other systems of the time, i.e. The Bazooka or the P.I.A.T. that it would only be truly effective at virtual point blank range.